mojoPortal Tips: Managing Content Workflow, Part I

In any organization consisting of more than one person, there is a natural tendency to delegate based on available time, energy and talent for any given task. In this day and age, content creation tends to be quite high on that list. Fresh content in your website ensures better SEO optimization, and gives your customers a reason to come back to your site more frequently.

However, there is a caveat to this; is it *good* content? Is it well-written, easy to read? Spelling, grammar, punctuation? Yes, even in this 140-character age, all those factors are critical in communication of your branding value. Example: your sales manager may be a brilliant verbal communicator, and an absolute genius in creating content that will draw in potential buyers – but she can’t spell her way out of a paper bag. Or perhaps he has only a passing familiarity with proper grammar and punctuation.

Well, that’s what your admin staff is for, right? That’s where we get into workflow, and touching on how to get content from the generator, to the editor, and to the web for your site visitors to read.

Let’s start with activating your content workflow; log into your mojoPortal instance, and click on “Administration”/”Site Settings”. This checkbox will be towards the bottom of the page, and can be easy to miss.

Caption 1: Enable the Workflow

Remember to click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page. Now to decide how to route your workflow – who’s on first, and all that? For this exercise, we’ll use three users: J. Writer, L. Editor, and T. Publisher. Now let’s take a look at the built-in roles provided with mojoPortal:

Caption 2: Right Out of the Box

Content Authors: This is the role you’ll want to assign your content creators.

Content Administrators: This role is for your editors – the ones who will be responsible for checking content quality and accuracy.

Content Publishers: Save this role for the person who give the final “OK” to flip the switch, and schedule when the content will become visible on the site.

We’ll take a break here, and pick up in Part II, where we’ll demonstrate creating a custom workflow.

Author Spotlight

Carole Bennett

Carole Bennett is the founder and principal of IndigoTea. As a professional IT consultant, Carole has provided solutions for companies as diverse as Verizon, Frito-Lay, Capital One Auto Finance, and Zales Jewelers, parlaying a unique talent for acting as a translator between the worlds of business challenges and technology solutions.
She considers multi-tasking skills gained from simultaneously 1) managing a fire performance troupe, 2) raising a family, and 3) working as a full-time IT consultant excellent preparation for her current career incarnation as the driving force behind IndigoTea. "Fire-breathing redhead on a mission" is not just a metaphorical description!